Talking 'NBA Penis Monologues'

Kenny Anderson

Matt Campbell/AFP

Kenny Anderson had a long career in the NBA, but off the court, he fathered seven children with five different women. He is among the former players starring in "NBA Penis Monologues," appearing Sunday in Miami Beach.

Kenny Anderson had a long career in the NBA, but off the court, he fathered seven children with five different women. He is among the former players starring in "NBA Penis Monologues," appearing Sunday in Miami Beach. (Matt Campbell/AFP)

Nick Sortal, SouthFlorida.com

NBA players can endlessly discuss how to defend a pick-and-roll, but it's not often they'll spill their feelings about personal failures and mistake, says Joe Brown, who has tried to open up the conversation by writing a stage show titled "The NBA Penis Monologues."

The show, which Brown calls the male response to "The Vagina Monologues," will be staged Sunday, Dec. 8, in Miami. It features candid discourse from four retired players: Kenny Anderson, J.R. Rider and Miami Heat veterans Chris Gatling and Anthony Mason. The show opened this summer in New York.

"We don't do this," says Brown, who grew up in New York and has known the players for decades. "We internalize everything, then drop dead of a stroke."

In the show, Brown says, the players talk about their relationships with their fathers.

"It's almost like sitting in on a therapy sessions but having all that open to the public," he says. "But we have fun and talk about the fun times, too, although in the end, it comes back to how foolish it was."

Anderson, in particular, brings much to the show. He was a high school basketball prodigy in New York and played 14 seasons in the NBA with eight teams. He has been married three times and fathered seven children with five different women. Anderson tried to get into coaching in South Florida, but was fired from a private school in Davie after a DUI.

His story pivoted this summer, when he revealed during the New York show that he had been sexually abused as a child.

"If [others] could see that Kenny Anderson is talking about it, now they may be able to tell their story," Anderson says in an interview with SB Nation. "I wasn't going to do it, but then the trigger went off for me. This had to be done."

Four-time WNBA all-star Ticha Penicheiro and Sonjia Kenya, author of "Sex in South Beach: Let's Talk About Sex," are also featured in the show. HBO's "Real Sports" will film the performance.

The players will host a free basketball clinic for children at noon Saturday, Dec. 7, at Elizabeth Virrick Park, 3255 Plaza St., in Coconut Grove. The show is at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, with a VIP meet-and-greet from 5 to 6:45 p.m. before the curtain call at 7 at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, in Miami Beach. Tickets cost $60 for the show, $100 for VIP. Go to PenisMonologue.com.